Mileage or scrip exchange-ticket.



E. L. TRANT.

MILEAGE 0R SCHIP EXCHANGE TICKET.

APPLICATION FILED Dias, 1912.

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THE COLUMBIA PMNOURAPH 60,. WASHINGTON, D. c.

55m/vanto@ 5MM/nega EDWARD L. TRANT, OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

MILAG-E GR SCRIP EXCHANGE-TICKET.

Specification of Letters Patent. i

Patented June 61916.

Application led December 5, 1912. Serial No. 735,105.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD L. TRANT, a. citizen of the United States, and a resident of Richmondcounty of Henrico, State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mileage or Scrip Ex change-Tickets, of which the following is a full and clear specification, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, in whichf Figures l, 2 and 3 show the three parts of the ticket; Fig. 4 a view of one of the parts of the ticket showing the manner of filling in the same when there is a cash transaction involved; and Fig. 5 a transverse section showing the manner of superposing them while their blanks are being simultaneously filled in. v y

In certain sections of the United States o the railway7 companies require the holders of mileage or scrip books to exchange the cou-y pons of same for a train ticket at the point of departure, the ticket agent at that point removing the required mileage or scrip coupons and returning the book to the passenger together with a train ticket which will carry him to his destination. This practice has given rise to considerable trouble to the passengers as well as t-he railway officials,

l and it is the object of my present invention to devisel a meansY whereby the railway oliicials will have their work greatly facilitated` the passenger Will be satisfied, errors will be reduced to a minimum, and refunds by the railway quickly and easily accomplished in case of error in removing too much mileage or scrip 'or in case the passenger makes a shorter trip than he intended when he obtained his exchange ticket, as more fullv hereinafter set forth.

My ticket consists of three parts, A, B and C, the part A being intended as a trainticket for the passenger, thepart B as a ticket or stub for retention by the agent who made the exchange, and the part C is intended as a ticket that the ticket agent will send in to the auditor of the railway.

The part A will have printed upon it the usual matter contained on an ordinary railway ticket and the other parts will have printed on each the information that the railway company may desire. Across the middle of each ticket is a series of spaces which the ticket agent must ll out, certain of these spaces being for the description of the mileage or scrip lbook and another space being intended for a memorandum of the cash the ticket agent collects from the passenger, if any. Below these series of spaces, on each ticket is ano-ther series of spaces or a column in which the ticket agent writes a memorandum as follows: First, the commencing (lowest) number of the coupons in the mileage or scrip book, next, the amount of mileage or scrip detached and retained by the ticket agent, and finally, the closing number, this latter being obtained by adding the two fermer together. The spaces. on the three parts of the ticket are identically located so that by superposing the parts of the ticket and using transparent paper for one of the parts of the ticket and a double faced carbon sheet (B being the transparent piece and D being the double faced car,- -bon in Fig. 5), the agent in filling out one of the tickets, .preferably the train ticket, will simultaneously and in facsimiles hand# writing lill in all three parts of the ticket. After thus filling in the'ticket, the agent hands the train ticket to the purchaser and returns him his mileage or scrip book, and forwards one of the triplicates to the auditor of the railway company and retains the other one for his own records.

Y Should the mileage or scrip book not have enough scrip or mileage in it to c'over the trip the passenger desires to take, he pays cash for the balance. A transaction of this sort is illustrated in F 3, where the closing number indicates the additional mileage that the passenger is required to pay for,

while in the space headed Cash collected the agent will make a memorandum of the cash collected.

In case of error in tearing out the mileage or scrip or in case the passenger makesv a shorter journey than the ticket calls for the passenger may obtain a refund from the general passenger agent by sending in the Vticket to the general passenger agent who will be enabled by the record on the eX- change ticket to make refund without waiting to communicate with the ticket-agent who issued the ticket, thus saving great delays in making refunds. In the case where the passenger makes a shorter journey than the ticket calls for it will be necessary for him to have the conductor make a note on the mileage or scrip exchange ticket of the name of the place where he left the train, so that the general passenger agent can readily determine the amount of the refund; but

should a refund be applied for on account of an error on the part of the issuing agent in tearing off a greater` amount of mileage or scrip than the tari calls for the passengers ticket itself will show the error and the general passenger agent may make an immediate refund without with the auditor, it being simply necessary to communicate with the agent direct. In short, the information that the issuing ticket agent places on the ticket at the time of issuing it enables not only the passenger but all the o'licers of the road to check up errors and correct them.

A further advantage is that the passengers ticket, the agents ticket and the auditors ticket are all filled out simultaneously thereby greatly expediting the issuance of the ticket and at the same time rendering the making of errors a very remote contingency and assuring that the information on each ticket shall be exactly alike.

A further advantage is that when the passenger is given the ticket he has a record as to the condition of his mileage or scrip book before the ticket was issued, the amount of miles or scrip detached and the number of miles remaining in the book, so that at his leisure and after he boards his train he may compare the ticket with his book and verify not only the calculation of the issuing agent but also the distance. lThis will be especially advantageous for commercial travelers who are required by their employers to keep an exact record of the use of their mileage, and it also enables the employers to apply direct to the general passenger agent for refunds .where too much mileage or scrip has been used for any particular trip. It will be observed that each of the tickets not only identifies the mileage or scrip book but gives the exact figures which the agent used in making his calculation to determine the amount of mileage or scrip to be removed from the bookg'in other words, all three parts of the ticket show at a glance the arithmetical sum the agent must perform in every case before issuing the ticket, thus eliminating mental arithmetic and giving to all parties concerned a written record of communicating the transaction. This is of special importance to not only the passenger but to all the railway oflicials.

It will be observed also that it is a great advantage to have all three tickets in facsimile handwriting since by that means any alteration that a passenger may make on the ticket that is issued to him may be readily discovered by comparing his ticket with either of the tickets held by the railway company, thereby rendering this invention especially valuable for use as original evidence in suits brought against railway companies on account of errors of agents and conductors.

lt will be understood that l may make up these tickets in tablet form or may bind them in sets of three in a book with weakened lilies to enable them to be readily removed in sets. Or the agent may keep them on hand as separate pieces and superpose them when he lills them in.

Having thus described my invention, what l claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A mileage or scrip exchange ticket consisting of three parts, one part for the passenger and the other parts for use as records by the railway company, each part being provided with a series of'spaces for the number of the mileage or lscrip book and a column for the entry in the order named of the following items: the commencing number of coupons in the mileage or scrip book, the amount of scrip or mileage eX pressed in coupons or miles that is detached, and the closing number' in the mileage or scrip book, the said arrangement being such that the latter number can be obtained by adding the two former entries; the afore said spaces and the spaces in the column be ing identically positioned on the three parts of the ticket whereby they may be superposed and all filled in simultaneously and in the same hand-writing.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

EDVARD L. TRNT.

Witnesses i C. P, SHAW,

F. D. Lirscoivrnn.

Gopics of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner oi retenu. Washington, D. G. 

